Futures Higher Ahead of Data Flurry

(REUTERS) -- Stock index futures were higher on Thursday, following three days of market losses and ahead of a batch of data including industrial production, jobless claims and New York manufacturing.

Spain saw yields fall in a well-received bond auction, raising roughly twice what the government had targeted. Italian benchmark yields dipped, but were still above seven percent.

Equity markets have lately tracked European bond prices, with traders using them as a proxy for risk appetite. Still, nervous investors sent gold and the Swiss franc higher on their safe-haven appeal.

S&P 500 futures rose 7.2 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 73 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 14.75 points. S&P futures are down more than three percent so far this week.

The labor department releases its monthly producer price index (PPI) and weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. EST. PPI is forecast to rise 0.2 percent in November, compared with a 0.3 percent drop in October, while economists forecast a total of 390,000 new jobless claims, compared with 381,000 in the prior week.

Also at 8:30 a.m., the New York Federal Reserve Bank releases its Empire State Manufacturing Survey for December. Economists expect a reading of 3.00, compared with 0.61 in November.

Other data on tap includes the Commerce Department's third-quarter current account figures, the Federal Reserve's industrial production and capacity utilization for November and the Philadelphia Fed's December business activity survey.

Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. said Wednesday it raised the size of its initial public offering and priced the stock at $20 per share, above the expected range.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)